How to corral a handyman

MOSCOW In a city where it is often impossible to get a plumber or any other repairman, somebody just figured out how to fix the pipes – and replace light bulbs, scrub off graffiti and patch leaky roofs. Throughout Moscow and other Russian cities, such elementary repairs are in full swing as the city's workmen, their reputations for surliness, laziness and drunkenness undiminished, hurry from one job to the next.

Delighted Muscovites are crediting a new website for the unaccustomed work ethic. Called Roszkh, it streamlines the process for filing complaints about maintenance of the communal areas of apartment buildings, like hallways and entryways, that remained public property after post-Soviet privatizations.

Stymied by a loss of momentum after street protests, Russian opposition leaders had been casting about for other approaches to remain relevant through what promises to be a long tenure for President Vladimir V. Putin. Aleksei Navalny, a blogger and political activist, hit upon the idea of the website, which is run under the auspices of his Foundation for Fighting Corruption.

“It's difficult to say when the next wave of protests will come,” Navalny said in an interview about his new site, named after an acronym Russians use for their combined utility and building maintenance bills, ZhKKh.

Since the site went up on Nov. 8, 28,354 users have filed 45,835 complaints, mostly in Moscow and other large cities. So far, repairmen have fixed about 2,600 reported problems. In Russia, that qualifies as extraordinary.

“I live in an old five-story building where the hallway has no light and no windows,” one Muscovite, Boris Frantskevich, wrote in a post. It seemed that way forever. But on a lark, he tried logging a complaint on the website.

“Just today, I walk out of my apartment and an electrician is digging in the wires,” he wrote. “Wow, he's fixed the light.”

Navalny attributes the site's success to official sensitivities to public anger over the deplorable state of housing, particularly in Moscow. In a leaked letter, Russia's chief housing inspector ordered that complaints on the website be addressed immediately.

The inspector, Nikolai Vasyutin, clarified the response in a letter to subordinates, saying, “It's become obvious this is a policy by the opposition to discredit all levels of the government.

“But this shouldn't confuse the organs of the state housing inspection,” his letter said, instructing officials to counter the tactic by fixing problems quickly.

Public opinion surveys indicate that the steady rise in fees is the issue that upsets Russians most.

With fees rising faster than inflation, many Russians are incensed about paying more – currently about $130 a month in Moscow – while hallways, even in upscale buildings, are often black tunnels, splattered with graffiti and reeking of septic odors.

“It's clear that an ordinary person has a hard time helping us fight corruption at Gazprom,” the big state energy company, said Navalny, a former real estate lawyer. “But unfortunately in Russia, corruption surrounds a person everywhere. We are trying to create a mechanism for people to fight corruption themselves.”

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